From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Thu Mar 11 2004 - 11:08:45 MST
Hi
> So why not bypass the "major funding bodies" and the NSF
> entirely? I
> don't see why a strong memetic push could not garner enough angel
> investment to fund a $20 million effort, especially spread over a few
> years. It is even conceivable that a strong push among thousands of
> interested less well-heeled persons could do the trick. This just
> isn't that terribly much money for the potentially huge return.
>
> I imagine this has already been tried. What was in the way there?
>
> - samantha
What's in the way is deep skepticism about the practical near-term
possibility of AGI, even among futurist-minded folks who understand the
theoretical plausibility of AGI.
This skepticism is somewhat understandable given the many "false alarms"
characterizing the history of AI.
The Novamente project may well undertake a fundraising effort such as
you describe, but not this year. Such a fundraising effort would be a
lot of effort, and we'll be better positioned for it in early 2005, when
we finally publish our long-awaited books on Novamente. (The books have
been so long in coming due to our difficulty in finding time for
writing!)
-- Ben
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